The environmental conditions of an enclosed area such as a residential home, an office, or an industrial use building are maintained by employing energy consuming devices such as a furnace, an air conditioning unit, a water heater, a lighting fixture, and the like. These devices consume energy such as electrical energy or heat energy from natural gas, for example, to produce a desired environmental condition within the enclosed area. The increasing cost of the energy required to power these devices has caused consumers to seek out devices that are more efficient and methods of operating the devices that result in an increased operational efficiency of the devices.
The marketplace currently includes numerous apparatuses adapted to facilitate the efficient operation of the energy consuming devices. Examples of such are programmable electronic thermostats, timers for lighting, and timers for water heaters. These apparatuses are typically stand alone items that work with a single energy consuming device. The apparatuses do not provide a systematic approach to monitoring and operating all the energy consuming devices typically employed to achieve the desired environmental conditions within the enclosed area.
The current apparatuses do not provide direct feedback to a user as to the energy savings resulting from the use of the apparatuses. Additionally, consumers often take other steps to reduce energy consumption such as adding insulation to the enclosed area, and selecting set points for the furnace and the air conditioner that should result in a reduced consumption of energy. The consumer does not have a reliable method to determine whether the apparatuses or the other steps have reduced the energy consumption. Typically the consumer has a final utility bill that allows for a comparison of the energy costs from before and after the apparatus was installed or the other energy reducing steps were completed. The cost of the consumed energy shown in the utility bill does not take into account factors such as outside temperature, rainfall, wind speeds, or hours of daylight, for example, to allow a consumer to determine whether the apparatus or the other steps taken have actually resulted in a reduction in energy consumption and/or an improved operational efficiency of the energy consuming devices.
It would be desirable to have an energy management system adapted to monitor, control, and provide analysis of the consumption of energy by energy consuming devices.